Fear Itself: Core Rulebook

The Roleplaying Game of Personal Horror

Fear Itself plunges ordinary people into a disturbing contemporary world of madness and violence — and inexorably draws them into confrontation with creatures of the Outer Black, a realm of alien menace. GMs can re-create all the shudders and shocks of the horror genre at their table, whether they use the game’s distinctive mythology or one of their own choosing.

Powered by the GUMSHOE investigative roleplaying system, Fear Itself is ideal for one-shot horror games (where few, if any, of the protagonists are expected to survive) or ongoing campaigns in which the characters gradually discover more about the disturbing supernatural reality that hides in the shadows of the ordinary world. Will they learn how to combat the darkness? Or spiral tragically into insanity and death?

“I have given this product 5 stars: 4 because it delivers everything it promises; is written to a standard that I, as an ordinary gamer, cannot find fault with; and the 5th star because it brings truly new and innovative content to the industry. If you want scary and investigative – get this.”

“This is very much a game of personal horror — so be prepared to be even more creeped out than usual here. …If you want to go off the well-beaten path and want to try something different, then this game is for you. It emulates the cinematic horrors of everything from Scream to Twenty Eight Days Later. You could even recreate the classic ghost stories of literature or the J-Horror of The Ring or horror Manga like the Lovecraft-esque Uzamaki if you so wished.”

GUMSHOE is the groundbreaking investigative roleplaying system by Robin D. Laws that shifts the focus of play away from finding clues (or worse, not finding them), and toward interpreting clues, solving mysteries and moving the action forward. GUMSHOE powers many Pelgrane Press games, including Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents, Esoterrorists, Ashen Stars, Mutant City Blues and Fear Itself. Learn more about how to run GUMSHOE games, and download the GUMSHOE System Reference Document to make your own GUMSHOE products under the Open Gaming License or the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution Unported License.